Dangan Ronpa: Below Ground
by lxnar
Summary: "The sound of the siren is deafening. Where is there to go? What is there to run to? Houses burn, rubble falls. Nowhere is safe anymore." In a bunker deep underground, a group of Hope's Peak students find themselves trapped and forced into a killing game. Open SYOC. Do people still do those?
1. PROLOGUE

I'm bored as shit and I've got way too much time on my hands. What better time to write an SYOC?

Do people even still do these? Man, I don't know. More information down at the bottom.

**Prologue**

The sound of the siren is deafening. Its screams echo through the city, calling families out of their homes, drawing civilians from every crack and crevice. But where is there to go? What is there to run to? Houses burn, rubble falls. Nowhere is safe anymore.

Miwa runs.

Not further inward, like the people around her. She pushes against the crowd, weaves through it in the opposite direction. Her lungs burn and her heart pounds, but she doesn't stop. She can't stop, she can't let the tide take her down and trample her beneath their feet. Her face is coated with so much blood and sweat that she can't feel where one ends and the other begins. She reaches up to wipe her eyes, but at that moment, something bumps into her. Her hand jerks into her face, knocking her glasses off and rendering her all but blind. Shit. She's never going to make it like this. She slows and stares at the ground, trying to spot them. Even broken, they're better than nothing. But it's no use.

Someone else bumps up against her, and then again. She loses her balance and falls.

(The sirens are still screaming.)

A small group moves through the crowd, quickly, but not panicked. They, too, move in the opposite direction, making their way out of the city. It's easier for them; even in their frenzy, civilians naturally part to let them pass. Maybe it's the matching suits and the symbols, maybe it's the guns on their belts. Whatever it may be, nobody is shoving these people out of the way.

"How much further?" Asks a young man in the back. He looks the most worried of them all, clutching his gun in a way that makes it clear just how unfamiliar with it he is. "Are we going to-"

"We'll make it," says the woman leading the pack, cutting him off. "Just keep moving."

"But-"

"I said keep fucking moving," she snaps. "That's an order, Saito."

(Saito looks over his shoulder at the city, still burning. He does his best not to look at the sky.)

"Mom!" A girl's voice cuts through the noise, and Akane's head snaps up at the sound. She would recognize that voice anywhere. It stops her dead in her tracks. "Mom!"

Her arms are already half open when Yuki comes barreling towards her, wrapping her own arms tightly around her mother. Akane buries her face in her daughter's shoulder, taking a deep breath. "What are you doing here?" She asks quietly.

Yuki pulls away, tears streaking her face. "I couldn't leave you."

"They're not going to let me go with you, love."

"I know." Yuki nods, smiling sadly. "So I'm not going either."

Akane's eyes burn with unshed tears as the two embrace again. The crowd threatens to swallow them up as they stand in the middle of the road, but nothing will separate them. Not again.

(The sirens stop. The crowd stops. Everything stops. There is nothing but the sound of a door slamming shut, and a collective sigh of relief from below the surface of the earth.)

And then it is very, very cold.

* * *

Hey, I bet that didn't make much sense! Don't worry, it wasn't supposed to. Yet. But it will later, probably.

**Ground rules:**

**No relatives of canon characters or anything like that. As far as I'm concerned, canon characters don't exist in this universe. Nothing from canon happened at all. Canon talents, thus, are allowed!**

**Be creative, and let your imagination run wild, but remember that there are going to be other characters in this story too. Nothing way too OP, and don't try to just make the "perfect protagonist" - there won't be a protagonist! There are going to be rotating perspectives, and I'm going to try and give everyone their time to shine.**

**And on that note, please try not to recycle old characters. If you've submitted them somewhere and they were rejected, and you really want to see them used, that's okay. But if they are currently in a story, try sending a different character! I don't want to step on any other author's toes here. **

**Try to stay between the ages of 15-18. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis, but for the most part, that's the range I'm looking for. They're high school students, after all.**

**Human characters only, no AI or supernatural stuff.**

**Hidden talents are allowed, but no SHSL Good/Bad Luck. Every character must have a talent of some kind.**

**You can send as many characters as you want, but I probably won't accept more than two per person. Submissions through PM only, please.**

**Be nice to everyone! No talking bad about the quality of other people's characters and stuff. We're all here for a good time, yeah?**

And the form:

**\- Mandatory -**

_It looks like a lot, but most things can be answered with one sentence or even one word, so don't worry!_

Name:  
Age:  
Gender:  
Talent:  
Physical Appearance:  
Clothing:  
Would You Like Them To Be In A Relationship?:  
Sexuality:

Personality: _(Please try to be as detailed as possible here! Probably the only section I care about the length of, try to give at least four sentences.)  
_Strengths:  
Weaknesses:  
Role in Trials/Investigations:

Backstory: _(Include any life-changing events, and people they care about. Family/friends/etc.)_  
More Likely To Be Victim or Culprit?:  
Likely To Be Mastermind? If Yes, Why?:  
Secret(s):  
Reaction to Body Discovery:  
Reaction to Execution:  
How They Would Act As Culprit:  
Things That Would Motivate Them To Kill:

What Do You Want To See: _(Probably the most important section on this form. What do you want them to do? What do you want to have happen to them? I'm writing this story for my entertainment, yeah, but I'm also doing it for YOU, and I want you to be happy with what happens to your character. Any ideas or hopes you have, put here!)_

**\- Optional -**

_Nothing in this section is required, but it would help to know more about the character! Anything not explicitly stated here, I'll have to fill in blanks for myself, so if you're okay with that, no need to bother doing this._

Quirks/Habits:

Execution Idea:

Kind of People They Like:

Kind of People They Dislike:

Anything Else?:

And that's it! Expect an update soon? Depending on how many characters I get, I guess! Like I said, I'm not even sure people still really do these things, so we'll see!


	2. More Information!

**Prologue (2)**

It burns bright in the sky above them, watching. It looms closer with each passing second. Sango grimaces.

"There isn't much time," she says, adjusting her glasses. She's tired. They're all tired. They've spent too many nights awake and brewed too many pots of coffee that have long since gone cold. There's resignation to her tone, a hopelessness that permeates the room. This isn't how it was supposed to end.

It doesn't seem to affect the Headmistress, who stands tall at the head of the table, expression as unreadable as ever. "We stick to the plan. We move forward. We persist."

Sango lowers her head against the table and closes her eyes. It feels so good to rest them, for just a bit...

"This is what we have always done," the Headmistress continues. "_Persisted_, against all odds. I trust you've all made your selections?"

She looks around the table, watches the weary faces of the people she's collected. They look hopeless, guilty. They feel as though they've failed, she knows it. Nobody speaks.

The Headmistress clenches her teeth and bangs her hands against the table. Sango's head shoots up, eyes wide.

"Listen to me," she hisses. "Now is _not_ the time to give up. I'm not here to give you a damn pep talk, or rouse you all with an encouraging speech. We are probably _all_ going to die. There's no escaping that. Your families, your friends, they certainly will. But it doesn't matter. This isn't about the individual. It's not about you, or me, or your husbands and wives. This is about _humanity_. The greater good. Years ago when you took on these positions, that is what you pledged your lives for, and if you back out now, all you've done is prove that your word has never meant anything at all. Suck it. The fuck._ Up_."

Her colleagues stare at her for a few moments as she composes herself. Sango watches her and wonders how she does it, how she disconnects herself from the world like that, all ice-cold rationality and burning determination. Perhaps she'll never know. She reaches for the cold cup of coffee in front of her and drains it.

"We'd better get working, then," she says. "There's still quite a bit to do."

There's a glint in the Headmistress's eyes, the barest hint of a smile. "That's what I like to hear."

* * *

**And I oop-**

**Added a bit more, because there was more I wanted to add, and I feel like there's a little more explaining I could do! The story takes place in an underground bunker/shelter type area, following a mysterious cataclysmic event that characters will have no memory of. They will wake up in the bunker and not remember how or why they're there - the last thing they'll remember will probably be being in school, but pieces of their memory will slowly return to them. **

**Also, a couple things that I feel I should clarify/questions I've gotten:**

**Hidden talents are allowed, but every character _must have a talent, _and please try to explain a little bit about what that talent is/what they do.**

**Characters can be from anywhere in the world, as long as there's a reason that a school based in Japan would have noticed them. A character with a talent that caused them to be internationally known works in this case, however a character only known more locally probably wouldn't.**

**I'm hoping to have between 14-16 characters, but as of now, I haven't had many submitted. So there's plenty of time to submit! No deadline, really, just waiting until I have enough characters I can work with. It's not first come first served, but I'm also not going to be _super_ picky. So yeah! Submit away. I'm sorry for the kind of sparse update, but I'm getting a lot more excited about this story, so I'm doing some more writing and getting eager to see those characters!**


End file.
